The elements of Celtic art

THE ELEMENTS
OF CELTIC ART

BY

E. K. CARMICHAEL, M.C.

PUBLISHED BY AN COMUNN GAIDHEALACH AT

114 WEST CAMPBELL STREET, GLASGOW

1922

Price One Shilling

i. I )

THE ELEMENTS OF
CELTIC ART

THE ELEMENTS
OF CELTIC ART

BY

E. K. CARMICHAEL, M.C.

PUBLISHED BY AN COMUNN GAIDHEALACH AT

114 WEST CAMPBELL STREET, GLASGOW

1922

LAURISTON CASTLE

LIBRARY ACCESSIUN

real Ilritain by T. and A. C(jnstable Ltd.
tlic lidinbingli Univerbity Press

The first two chapters of the following- were
written at the request of the Arts and Industries
Committee of An Comunn Gaidhealach for children
of thirteen years of age and over. They are now
being published as an. introduction to the study and
application of Celtic Art, and a third chapter has
been added, more for the benefit of grown-ups.

The author hopes that this little book will
stimulate some one to produce one more worthy
of the vast subject whkh he has only been able
to hint at in thes6- p-ages.

Teanroit, Beauly,
18/8/22.

The illustration of the Thames Shield is
reproduced by permission of the Director of
the British Museum, and that of the Ardagh
Chalice by permission of the Council of the
Royal Irish Academy.

THE THAMES SHIELD
[British Museum)

CHAPTER I

Before you can understand about the Art of the
Celts, you must first know what Art is, and what
use it is, and how it began.

Art is the making of things beautiful, and the
purpose of that beauty is to make us glad when
we see it. The world seems a better place to
us, and life more worth living, when we see
something that pleases us ; and if the beautiful
thing is something that we can use, we feel we
can do better work with it. This is even true
about clothes — most of us like to wear nice
clothes. Don't you feel happier if you are wear-
ing pretty clothes ? But even our clothes must
be suitable for whatever we are doing.

Probably the first ideas of Art, even among
primitive man and savages, were connected with
religion ; but this is a big subject and need not
be entered upon here.

They first began by decorating the person, by
cutting the hair in peculiar ways and painting
the face and body, and later on by wearing beads
and ornaments and then skins and clothes.
When people began to make weapons, and have
A 2 9

THE ELEMENTS OF CELTIC ART

houses and furniture, they gradually got the idea
of making- their weapons and furniture pretty
by putting patterns on them. They saw, how-
ever, that merely putting a pretty pattern on
a sword handle or a clay pot did not necessarily
make a handsome sword or a handsome pot —
they found that the shape of the article had really
more to do with its beauty than the decoration
that was put on to it. These ancient people did
not often make things only for the sake of their
being pretty ; they made things because they
required to use them, so that the usefulness of
an article, and not its beauty, was the first
purpose in making it. Thus if a man were
making a sword, he would pay far more attention
to making it a good sword than to making it
beautiful, and he would not allow any shape to
be given to it, or any ornamentation to be
put on to it, that would spoil its balance or
interfere with its usefulness. And if a man were
making a stool, he would first try to make it as
strong and steady and comfortable to sit upon
as possible. Then, as far as he could without
spoiling its strength, steadiness and comfort, he
would design its shape or outline so as to make
that as elegant as possible ; to do this he might
make these six pictures, and choose the one he
liked best, as you can do.

lO

THE ELEMENTS OF CELTIC ART

Now in deciding which of these designs he
would choose, he would see that No. 3 would
not be a strong stool, and that No. 4 would not
be very steady, and that No. 5 and No. 6,
besides being rather affected and unnatural,
would require curved legs. For these he would
have to find bent branches that were the right
shape, or to bend wood with steam so that it
would stay bent. In this way the wood that

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was at hand would suggest the most natural
and therefore the most artistic shape for the
legs. In No, i the legs come straight down,
and you feel that the joint between the legs
and the top is strong. In No. 2 the legs are
splayed out only a little, and the joint is nearly
as strong, and the stool looks firmer. In No. 3
the legs are splayed still more than in No. 2,
and there is still less chance of the stool up-
setting, but you feel that the legs may break
away where they are joined to the top, and it
II

THE ELEMENTS OF CELTIC ART

is just the feeling within you that this shape
is weak and unsuitable for its purpose that
will make you say that it is ugly. The same
is the case with No. 4, but here it is not the
weakness of the joint that you are afraid of,
but that the stool is not steady and may upset.
There is nothing in itself ugly in having the
supports narrower below than above, for the
two wheels of a cart, looked at from in front or
behind, are like this, and so are many other things,
but in the case of the cart it is to make the
wheels stronger that they are closer together
below the axle than above, and so it looks
quite well and satisfying. So this is another
very important thing about Art which can be
learned from these pictures — that there is a
great tendency for a thing to look well simply
because it looks strong and suitable for its pur-
pose ; but there is also a tendency for a thing
to look clumsy and ugly if it looks much stronger
than is necessary. So the man in making the
stool must take care that the legs are well pro-
portioned to the weight they have to carry.
Now having chosen his design, he would make
his stool as well as he was able, but if he were
anxious to make a really beautiful stool he might
think of decorating it with some patterns. Here
again the man has got to stop to think. If he
12

THE ELEMENTS OE CELTIC ART

carves a pattern on the top of the stool he may
make it uncomfortable to sit upon, the legs would
be too thin to ornament except by turning, so
he would probably decide to decorate the top,
but not by carving it, but by marking it with
a hot poker, or inlaying it with other wood or
metal.

Then would come the question of what pattern
to put on the top of the stool.

Now Art is a thing that is very like language.
Every race has got Art of its own, just as every
race has got a language of its own, and the
man who decorates a stool with a pattern or

IT,

THE ELEMENTS OF CELTIC ART

design would use the Art of his race in doing
so, as it would be the only Art that would
mean anything to him, just as, were he speaking,
he would talk the language of his race, as it
would probably be the only language that he
knew.

On the preceding page are some drawings show-
ing how this man might have decorated the top of
his stool, or any other circular thing, if he were (7)
an Egyptian, (8) a Chinaman, (9) a Greek, (10) an
Indian, or (i i) an Iberian,^ and last of all (12) how
an ancestor of our own might have decorated
a circle.

^ Iberian is the name given to the race which inhabited Western
Europe, including this country, before the Celts came in.

14

CHAPTER II

The earliest patterns used by the Celts, among-
other races, were made up of short, straight
lines. They require no description, as you can
see 17 varieties of them in Fig. 13. These are

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very easy for you to copy and make use of
yourselves. The kind of pattern shown in this
figure is called chequer work, with the exception
of the two patterns in the last line, which are
called step patterns, and are really quite different
from the others. The best work in Celtic Art
15

THE ELEMENTS OF CELTIC ART

was done by the people who Hved from 500 B.C.
to 1000 A.D. Its appearance was not always the
same throughout that period, nor were the kinds of
patterns most in favour always the same. But the
Celts treated the elements of these patterns in
ways peculiar to themselves and different from
other people, which you can only learn by studying
examples of old work.

Good Celtic work has the following greneral
characteristics. It is always conventional — it
never attempts to represent anything on earth
in a natural way and exactly as that thing
appears.

Each separate piece of design must be in a
separate panel, and the panel should have a well-
marked border round it. You will see that in
Figs. 7- 1 1, which are not Celtic, there are two or
more different patterns in each circle, while in
Fig. 12, which is Celtic, there is only one.

The pattern must be complete within the border,
and not (as in Fig. 8) cut off by it. It should fill
up the whole panel, as far as the kind of pattern
used will allow.

Besides these general characteristics there are
characteristic treatments of each different kind of
pattern, whether spiral, key pattern, or interlace-
ment, which also can only be learned by studying
examples.

16

THE ELEMENTS OF CELTIC ART

Spirals. — The oldest form of spiral is just like
the letter S, or Fig. 1 9, and where a number of them

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are joined or locked together, they form a running
spiral pattern. Fig. 14 shows some of the early
Celtic running spirals that were used to decorate

sword sheaths and the like, and Fig. 15 shows a

circular pattern of the same period that may be

17

THE ELEMENTS OF CELTIC ART

considered as a spiral pattern. It may, however,
be an artistic treatment of a very old symbol,
which was used largely in Celtic and other Art,

called the Swastika. The simplest form of this
symbol is seen in the curious little cross in the
very centre of the figure.

/a

The Christian Celts brought spiral ornament to
a higher perfection than any other race has ever
reached, notwithstanding that it is the commonest
i8

THE ELEMENTS OF CELTIC ART

motive used in decoration up to the present day.
Figs. 1 6 and 17 are two good examples of spiral
ornament from the Book of Kells. Fig. 18, which
is to be seen on the Cadbol Stone, is done with
the same pattern as Fig. 16, but made into a square
only part of which is shown.

Key Patterns.— \<J\i^n the Egyptians tried to
weave a spiral, such as Fig. 19, which they were
very fond of, into cloth, it turned out with square

corners, like Fig. 20, and this was the origin of
what are called key patterns. The Egyptians
found they had invented a new pattern, and key
patterns formed on squares, like Figs. 20 and 23,
were used to decorate their temples and palaces.
But when they wove the same spiral into a grass
mat, it turned into a key pattern not formed on
squares, but on diamonds and equilateral triangles,
like Fig. 21. The Chinese borrowed this idea, and
you will see a key pattern based on diamonds
in the background of Fig. 8. The Celts borrowed
19

THE ELEMENTS OE CELTIC ART

the one based on squares, but instead of keeping-
the squares horizontal, as in Eig^s. 20 and 23, as the

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23

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29

Greeks and other peoples did, they turned the
squares diagonally, as in Eig. 22. But although
they made many key patterns on squares placed
diagonally, their most char-
acteristic and best key pat-
terns were made with these
squares divided into two
right-angled triangles, by
drawing diagonals through
them. Samples of the key
pattern made in this way
are shown in Eigs. 24-29,
and some of the ways in
which they filled in the triangles are shown in
Fig. 30. You will see that Eig. 24 is just the
same as Eig. 23, except that it is made in right-
angled triangles instead of in squares, and has
20

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50

THE ELEMENTS OF CELTIC ART

an extra turn in the spiral. You will be able
to draw these key patterns if you get a cross-
ruled sheet of paper and lay it cornerwise.

Interlaced Patterns. — Next to the spirals the
most important Celtic patterns are made up of
a band bent backwards and forwards, and inter-
laced with itself, so that as you follow its course it

THE ELEMENTS OF CELTIC ART

goes over and under at each crossing alternately.
Never must it go over or under twice in succession.
Generally the band is endless, as in Fig. 31 a, and
sometimes there are two or more endless bands, as
in Fig. 3 I B. These patterns are used for decorating-
panels, and sometimes for decorating borders,
when they are like those in Fig. 32, and are called
plaitwork.

The easiest way to design interlaced patterns is
to use a cross-ruled sheet of paper placed corner-
wise as for key patterns. I'^ig. 31 represents a
piece cut out of a page of a cross-ruled exercise
book, so that the squares are placed diagonally or
cornerwise. The first thing to do is to draw two
lines at right angles to each other, so that they
will meet in the middle of a square. If your
pattern is to consist of one continuous band, you
will have to select a number of squares for the sides
and ends of your panel that will have a greatest
common measure of i. Thus in a the sides are
4 squares long (two half squares and three whole
squares) and the ends are 3 squares long (two half
and two whole squares). In b, however, the sides
have 4 squares each, and the ends two squares
each, and the g.c.m. of these two numbers being
2, you have a pattern consisting of two bands.
If instead of having the corners of your panel in
the middle of squares, you have them at the corners
22

THE ELEMENTS OF CELTIC ART

1

i

I

1

A B C D E F G

H K L M NO

52

23

THE ELEMENTS OF CELTIC ART

of squares, as in Fig. c, then your band will not be
continuous.^ The Celts often did this when they
wanted to put the heads and tails of beasts on the
ends of the bands, but they also often put their
tails in their mouths to make them continuous.

If you try to make one of these patterns yourself,
you will find great changes can be made in the
appearance of the pattern by making it with the
band broader or narrower, or by making the band
black or the background black, but that the
greatest change is in just how you draw the lines
and the curves.

The drawings here are not intended to be pretty
but only to show you the way they are done, for
the effect cannot be pretty if you draw the lines
with a ruler and compasses.

Figs. D, E, F, and g show what are called
breaks in the interlacement, and you will under-
stand them if you first study Fig. f and know that
the dotted line shows how the bands would have
gone if they had not been cut off, bent round and

' For purposes of calculation a discontinuous band counts as half
a band. The unit of measurement for the sides and ends of a panel
is from centre to centre of adjoining scjuares along the diagonal line.
If a side commences at the corner of a square instead of at the centre,
a half unit is introduced, which will yield a half or discontinuous
band ; and if it also ends at the corner of a square, another half band
will be produced. Thus, in Fig. c the G.C.M. of the sides and ends
is I, but this unit being composed of two half units, two discontinuous
bands arc created instead of one continuous one.

24

THE ELEMENTS OF CELTIC ART

joined up again. These breaks are often used to
vary patterns, like a, b, and c. You will see that if
you put a break like d or e into a it would
change into a two band pattern, and if you made
a break in b it would change into one continuous
band.

From making breaks in plaitwork, as you will
see in Fig, 32, arose what is called knotwork, and

55

the knots derived from the various positions of the
breaks in plaits of different numbers of strands
will be seen by looking carefully at the drawing.

Vine Spirals. — In the Highlands in the i6th
century and after there grew up yet another kind
of design, which is known as the vine spiral, the
beginnings of which we borrowed from Eastern
Europe. In Christian Art this idea was taken
from the saying of Christ, * I am the True Vine,'
25

THE ELEMENTS OF CELTIC ART

but the pattern probably got mixed up with an old
Babylonian pattern of the Tree of Life, with a
beast ouardinCT its foot, so althouorh the orioinal
pattern was something like Fig. 33A, it will be
found that quite often the stem of the plant is a
continuation of the tail of the beast, as in Figs. 331!
and c. Interlacement and twisting were also used
in these patterns as well as the spiral. Many
forms of leaf were used, some of which are shown
in Fig. 33D. The leaves were not usually derived
from the leaves of any actual tree, just as the
beasts in Celtic Art are not real beasts but purely
imaginary, for the Celts — though not with the
bigotry of the Mohammedans — believed in obeying
literally the second commandment. You can see
examples of vine spiral patterns in most old grave-
yards in the Highlands.

26

CHAPTER III

In the foregoing I have dealt with only a small
portion of the art-heritage of the Celtic race ;
— in fact only with those developments of the more
important motives which have been sufficiently
investigated and their systems so understood as
to render them amenable to the designer.

It should here be stated that this investigation
was primarily the work of the late J. Romilly
Allen, to whose memory we owe a great debt.
There still remain big masses of Celtic decorative
art in such an incomplete state of hivestigation as
to leave their systems of construction and the
ideas underlying them so obscure that description,
understanding, and utilization of them is at present
very difficult. In this category may be mentioned
the splendid flamboyant patterns of Pagan times
and the highly complicated class of interlaced
zoomorphic patterns of the Christian period.

Metal — bronze, silver, and gold — was the prin-
cipal medium of the Celtic artist. Designs on
metal were executed by engraving, piercing,
embossing, and by casting in the solid. In
pre- Roman and even in Roman and later times
27

THE ELEMENTS OF CELTIC ART

metal -work was frequently ornamented with
cJiainplevd enamel in beautiful colours. In fact
the early Britons were the discoverers of the art
of enamelling- direct on to the metal, and many
beautiful examples of enamelled harness buckles
and the like have been discovered.

Perhaps the two best examples of Celtic metal-
work, unexcelled by any race at any period, are,
of Pagan times, the Thames Shield^ — full of joy
but magnificently restrained ; and of Christian
times, the Ardagh Chalice" — an abandonment to
joy and perfection, both of which are figured at
the beginning of this book.

The coloured enamel work of the Pagan Celts
had its counterpart in early Christian times in the
illuminated MSS. of the Celtic Church. Of these
the most famous is the Book of Kells — the greatest
storehouse of Celtic art and the most wonder-
fully executed illuminated MS. in the world,
unsurpassed in artistic beauty by any that has
survived to the present day.

After having mastered the simpler forms of
Celtic design as set forth in this primer, the

' British Museum — Bronze, flamboyant repousse work with
enamel. So called because it was found in that river.

" Royal Irish Academy — 8th century. Silver, bronze, and gold.
334 different pieces excluding rivets. Silver wire, enamel, glass,
amber and stones, and entirely covered with designs similar to those
of tlie Book of Kells.

28

THE ELEMENTS OF CELTIC ART

student should go direct to the old examples, and,
having- copied and studied these, sliould then fare
forth on adventures of his own, inventing and
creating, but keeping close to the tradition and
the spirit of the art, — as the old saying has it,
lea7i gu dlutJi ri cliit do shinnszr, follow closely
the glory of your forefathers.